It's about a year since I drew up the plans for the forest garden so it seems a good time to reflect on how the garden is progressing. A lot of the hard work has been done since then. The large non-edible trees have been cleared, the decking is gone, the main trees are planted and lots of soft fruit and herbs are in.

Pretty much all of the plants have survived the first year. Some of the trees have thrived from the outset like the Court of Wick apple, others like the Annie Elizabeth apple have struggled but have grown slowly. I've been surprised by the difference in vigour between all the trees. Even amongst the hazels, all three trees have grown to different extents with the Nottingham Cobnut putting on about 1.0m growth, whilst the Red Filbert has only grown about 0.15m and the Kentish Cob is somewhere in between. Some of the differences I'm sure are due to different degrees of soil fertility and I've been doing a lot to improve the soil around the garden. I'm hoping that now that they have their roots established the slower growing trees will do better next year.

I wasn't expecting much in the way of produce in the first year. Most of the trees and the soft fruit will take at least a year to start producing. I thought it would be useful to make a note of what the garden has produced this year so that I can keep track of how this changes with years as the garden develops. So here's a list so far:

Apples: about 20 from existing apple tree - it suffered this year from scab and lost most of its fruit and leaves early.Pears: about 10 fruit from poorly pollinated mature treeAcid cherries: about 4!Rhubarb: 10 stalksGooseberries: About 3!Strawberries: About 2!Herbs: Sage, rosemary, thyme, spearmint, marjoram Salad: Nasturtium leaves for salad, a few sorrel leaves Vegetable beds: Beetroot, lettuce, spinach, courgettes, pak choi, shallots, French beanGrowbags: Tomatoes - steady supply over about 6 weeks from 5 growbags. Lost quite a few to blight, but just kept cutting out the affected parts.Mini-greenhouse: Chillis - about 20

A pretty short list and it certainly doesn't make much of a contribution to the household food intake at the moment. I'm hoping that within the next few years that will change. It should be an easy baseline to improve on. However, the garden certainly looks pretty different now. Certain areas are really thriving where the plants are growing in combination like the herbs around the Tydeman's Late apple and also in the shady corner behind the garage where the rhubarb and Nottingham Cobnut is. I'll add some pictures soon.